The origin story of the "EU" cookie banner:

  1. Proposal: Lets ban tracking.
  2. "But what if the user wants to be tracked? People want better adds![1] We are also missing out on business innovations!"
  3. Fine. But since nobody in their right mind would want to done to them, you must prove with out a shadow of a doubt that the people you are tracking did consent to that.
  4. Surely, nobody will do this.
  5. Cookie banners everywhere.

[1] I am not kidding. "Isnt it better if the ads show things you are interested in?" was a main talking point.

Bonus: The original proposal (~2017) also mandated that social media which uses personal algorithmic feeds must make the individual data set of each user which is used to generated said feed viewable and editable to the user. Was ofc shut down by the corporate bootlickers people tend to vote into our parliaments.